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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2021-01-01 06:00
Last update date: 2021-01-01 06:00
The government announced on Wednesday (30th) that it will tighten the mandatory testing standards for the new crown virus. Residents and visitors of 43 residential buildings must be tested on or before the 4th of next month.
This is expected to speed up the detection of infected persons, isolate them as soon as possible and interrupt the chain of transmission.
The government will set up additional mobile sampling stations near relevant buildings, and residents can also submit samples to designated clinics and laboratories by themselves.
The highest local test volume has increased to 100,000 per day, which should be able to cope with new enhanced test cases. However, the previous test process has missed, and the subjects are especially worried about waiting for test results indefinitely, disrupting work and life.
The government must urge the health department and contractors to properly handle the tester's data, and the health department must also release the results within 24 hours.
The management office of Block 11, Caiyi Garden, San Po Kong has notified residents of mandatory testing.
(Photo by Ouyang Dehao)
100,000 per day but testing may not go smoothly
According to the new standard, if there are two unrelated confirmed cases in the same building within two weeks, residents and visitors of the entire building must be tested. The first batch of affected buildings is 42 buildings.
In addition, the Hong Kong University team continued to detect the new crown virus in the sewage samples of Kai Fai Building, Choi Wan Village, which has no confirmed cases. The building has also been included in the list of mandatory testing. The testing period for the two types of buildings is until the 4th of next month.
Assuming that each building is 30 stories high, there are ten households on each floor with three persons in each household, and the number of inspected persons exceeds 38,000.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor recently stated that the current maximum daily test volume of public and private laboratories has increased to about 100,000 per day. In terms of quantity alone, it is not a big problem to deal with the additional test samples within a few days.
However, the sufficient amount of remaining detection does not mean that the detection process is going smoothly.
As several infectious disease doctors have pointed out, if the sampling process is slow, the detection process is slow and errors are made, the subject does not receive the results for a long time, and the tracking of close contacts of the patient is ineffective, which will all weaken the effectiveness of mandatory testing.
Ms. Ling said that she had already handed in a deep throat sample on Monday, but because there was no SMS, she was worried about closing the building, and she had to rebuild and could not take care of the children all day. So she tested to obtain a negative certificate just in case .
(Photo by Ma Weijie)
Governments with poor performance in testing are difficult to win the trust of the people
In the past two to three months, there have been constant complaints from subjects who failed to obtain results. Later, it was discovered that the testing process was full of omissions. For example, the contractor's staff failed to upload the subject's information, positive cases were mistakenly negative, government computer systems were wrong, etc. The reasons were all.
Because the government implemented the "non-reply is equivalent to negative" measure earlier, they had to assume that they were fine.
Over there, because some employers require them to receive a negative notice before they can go to work, their waiting period is like a suspension of work, which is a blow to their livelihoods.
Although the government promised to release the results within 48 hours as much as possible after many criticisms on the 22nd, there were still complaints from the subjects on the 28th that they had to wait for a week without any news. They had to pay for the test to obtain the results. Afterwards, they suspected that the sample bottles were not inspected.者Barcode.
The notification procedure is not perfect, even if citizens agree with the importance of staying at home during the waiting period, it is sometimes difficult to follow.
Therefore, the government must urge subordinate departments and contractors to issue results within 24 hours, so that testers can feel at ease.
Liang Zhuowei also pointed out that the team took samples at sewage collection points in the entire building and tested positive for the virus, which does not mean that there is a risk of virus transmission in the sewers of this building.
(Photo by Luo Guohui)
Caring for the infirm to ensure that everyone is checked
In addition, some compulsory testing buildings are old public housing estates, and I believe there are many elderly or infirm people living in them.
They have limited mobility and even have difficulty going out, but they are infecting a group with higher risk.
In this regard, the government should consult with building managers and mutual committees to find out if any residents need special assistance, and arrange for contractors to take samples at home so that everyone is also tested.
The government press release did not mention such additional arrangements, and it is hoped that it is not the officials who missed 10,000.
The purpose of testing is to isolate and treat patients. The government has moved from waiting for confirmed cases to carry out testing, to regular testing of high-risk groups, and now referencing environmental virus data to carry out testing. The government is gradually taking the initiative to fight the epidemic.
Therefore, it is more necessary to repair loopholes in the detection process. Fast and accurate detection results can help track the infection route and prevent the new coronavirus from spreading.
The fight against the epidemic has been nearly a year, and the officials and people have also tasted the lessons of various anti-epidemic mistakes, and passed the "clearing".
Entering 2021, we must learn from our mistakes and defeat the epidemic together.
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